Antinuclear

Obama – Gillard attitudes on climate change – not a good omen for Tony Abbott

The same vested interests who tried their darndest to kill carbon pricing here will try and kill it in the US.

Could this be a global game-changer in 2013, validating Australia’s early action?

The vibes from America are bad for Abbott The Age, November 12, 2012 Katharine Murphy “…… Australian politics watched the US race closely, as politics does. It would be silly to draw too many conclusions and export the precise conditions of the US to here – but it’s not silly to see election season in America as a harbinger for our own contest in 2013.

Australian politics is manifesting the same broad issues: the forwards/backwards construction that’s an oldie but a goodie when progressives and conservatives vie for government……

Climate change is one issue that could get interesting between now and the Australian federal election in 2013.

Obama keeps bringing it up. There’s speculation carbon pricing is back on the agenda in the US, either as a revenue raising measure (and God knows they need revenue), or as an Obamacare ”vision thing” equivalent to rally the progressive base…..
It might not go anywhere. The same vested interests who tried their darndest to kill carbon pricing here will try and kill it in the US.
The American legislature is riven, and vulnerable to gaming by special
interests, meaning success is very uncertain.
But it’s interesting to consider the possibilities: Obama taking up
the cause; moderate Republicans, looking for a way to wrest their
party back from the nut jobs of the lunar right who just cost them the
White House, deciding a carbon tax is worth a look for fiscal as much
as environmental reasons.
Could this be a global game-changer in 2013, validating Australia’s early action; indeed, validating John Howard’s old arguments about the
merits of first-mover advantage?
Good news for Malcolm Turnbull. Less good for Tony Abbott.
http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/politics/the-vibes-from-america-are-bad-for-abbott-20121111-2968c.html#ixzz2C2APEcoC

November 12, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, politics